Optical lens holder

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to an optical lens holder comprising a supporting means and a first and a second arm defining a lens holder general plane, first and second arms being relatively movable with regards to each other and each arm having spaced apart first and second end portions and an intermediate portion, the arms being mounted on the supporting means through their first end portions and the second end portions of each arm comprising an optical lens accommodating means facing each other, whereby an optical lens can be maintained within the accommodating means of the first and second arms with its optical axis orthogonal to the general plane of the lens holder through at least one, preferably one or two contact points between the lens periphery and each of the first and second lens accommodating means, wherein at least the second end portion of each arm comprises a material having a dielectric constant at 1 MHz equal to or higher than the dielectric constant of the optical lens material.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an optical lens holder, for holding oneor more optical lenses, made of organic glass, in particular ophthalmiclenses, during treatments of the optical lenses, and in particularduring a corona discharge treatment, which prevents damage to theoptical lens such as burning or heat defects during a corona dischargetreatment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Corona discharge is widely used to treat the surfaces of plastic partssuch as organic glass optical lenses in order to improve the adhesionproperties of the surfaces. In most cases, such parts are just placed ona belt or a similar device and the surface to be treated does not touchany other material. If the lens is submitted to several treatment stepsthen manual handling is generally required to put on and to take thelens off the belt.

However, manual handling is troublesome.

The object of the invention is to provide a new means for handling thelens during a corona treatment without inducing any damage to the lensduring the corona treatment and during the handling.

According to the invention, one uses a means holding the part by itsperiphery so that the treated surface of the part be held in front ofthe active area of the treating device, for example the electric arc ina corona discharge treatment. In such circumstances, an area ofoverheating might occur at the contact points between the part and theholder and burns or defects due to heat might be observed.

An object of the invention is to provide an optical lens holder whichreduces, preferably avoids, the apparition of burned or overheated areasaround the contact points of the optical lens with the holder. Thus, toreduce or avoid the appearance of such defects, in particular during acorona discharge treatment of the optical lens, it has been determinedaccording to the invention that accumulation of electric charges on thetreated lens shall be avoided as such an accumulation can create an areaof overheating especially at the contact points between the optical lensand the holder. Also, it is important that heat created in the lensduring the treatment, in particular at the contact points, be dissipatedas fast as possible. Of course, the means used to obtain the diminutionor disappearance of the defects shall not detrimentally interfere withthe treating process and in particular with a corona dischargetreatment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, the above mentioned problems are solved byproviding an optical lens holder for holding at least one optical lensduring lens treatments and in particular a corona discharge treatmentwhich comprises a supporting means and a first and a second arm defininga lens holder general plane, first and second arms being relativelymovable with regards to each other and each arm having spaced apartfirst and second end portions, and an intermediate portion, the armsbeing mounted on the supporting means through their first end portionsand the second end portions of said arms comprising optical lensaccommodating means facing each other, whereby an optical lens can bemaintained within the accommodating means of the first and second armswith its optical axis orthogonal or nearly orthogonal to the generalplane of the lens holder through at least one, preferably one or twocontact points between the lens periphery and each of the first andsecond lens accommodating means, wherein at least the second end portionof each arm comprises a material having a dielectric constant at 1 MHzequal to or higher than the dielectric constant of the optical lensmaterial.

Preferably, the material of the second end portions of the arms have adielectric constant at 1 MHz of 3.0 or more.

Furthermore, the material of the second end portions of the armspreferably also have a specific heat (kJ kg⁻¹ K⁻¹) higher than thespecific heat of the optical lens material to be held in the holder andmore preferably have a specific heat higher than 1.2. kJ kg⁻¹ K⁻¹.

In one embodiment, the material of the second end portions of the armsis selected from plastic materials and in particular plastic materialsselected from the group consisting ofpolyacrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polyoxymethylene homo andcopolymers (POMH and POMC), cellulose acetate (CA), cellulose acetatebutyrate (CAB), polyamides, polyetherimides (PEI),polyalkylmethacrylates such as polymethylmethacrylates (PMMA) andpolyaramides.

Although only the second end portions of the arms may be made of thematerial having the required dielectric constant value, the entire armcan be made of this material.

In an other embodiment of the invention, the second end portions of thearms is made of an electrically conductive material or is covered withan electrically conductive material such as a metal.

Suitable metals are aluminum, stainless steel, brass, copper, gold.

Preferred metals are stainless steel, aluminum.

When the second end portion is made of a metal such as aluminum, theremaining portion of the arm is preferably made of an electricallyinsulating material. Appropriate electrically insulating material can beany classical electrically insulating material including the plasticmaterials recited above.

Among the preferred electrically insulating plastic material, there maybe cited polyoxymethylene homo and copolymers, polyacrylonitrilebutadiene styrene.

Applicant has established that the use of a metal or a metallic coatingfor the second end portions of the arms of the lens holder of theinvention avoids any localized overheating, in particular when using lowspeed of passage in a corona discharge device such as 3.6 mm/s or less.

If one covers the second end portions of the arms with an aluminum foil,the thickness of the aluminum foil is ranging from 0.00017 inches to0.0059 inches (i.e. 0.0043 mm to 0.15 mm).

Another kind of coatings are those comprising electroconductivepolymers, preferably having a conductivity better than polycarbonate.

The supporting means is not electrically conductive.

When a lens is placed in the lens holder, at least one of the faces ofthe lens is freely accessible for a corona treatment, preferably bothfaces of the lens are freely accessible for a simultaneous coronatreatment.

In order to further improve heat evacuation, specific designs of thelens accommodating means have been established.

In one embodiment, the lens accommodating means are in the form ofrecesses managed in the second end portions of the arms. Preferably, therecesses have a flat bottom wall and two inclined sidewalls, the angleof the sidewalls with the bottom wall being such that a lens placed inthe holder will be maintained either through only two contact pointswith the bottom wall or four contact points with the sidewalls and thatthere is no areas created between the lens periphery and the holder inwhich for example the electrical arc carried by an air flow coming outfrom corona heads will get trapped, creating areas of overheating.Preferably, the angle between the lateral sides and the bottom of therecesses is 120° or more.

Preferably also, the thickness of the arms and in particular of thesecond end portions shall be as low as possible.

Typically, the second end portions of the arms are thinner than theremaining portions of the arms and have a thickness, generally rangingfrom 2 to less than 13 mm, preferably ranging from 2 to 10 mm. Thus, thearms can absorb the heat of the lens faster and also dissipate fasterthe heat through air exchange.

In another embodiment, the lens accommodating means of each arm are inthe form of two identical spaced apart tabs projecting perpendicularlyfrom facing surfaces of the first and second arms and having a lensreceiving notch at their free ends. Preferably, the notches have a Vshape with an angle of 90° C. or more. In this embodiment, the lens ismaintained in the lens holder through four contact points between itsperiphery and the surfaces of the notches of the tabs. In this latterembodiment, the arms or only the tabs may be elastically deformable toallow accomodation of the lens.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a first embodiment of an opticallens holder according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of one arm of the lens holder of FIG. 1, showingthe reduced thickness of the second end portion of the arm;

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a second embodiment of anoptical lens holder according to the invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic front view of the optical lens holder of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of the optical lens holder of FIG. 3;and

FIG. 6 is a schematic front view of an optical lens holder similar tothe lens holder of FIG. 3 but with elastically deformable arms.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a first embodiment of an opticallens holder 1 according to the invention. The holder 1 comprises asupporting means 2 in the form of a pair of parallel rails 2 a, 2 b andthree arms 10, 20, 30, namely a central arm 20 and two lateral arms 10,30 on both sides of the central arm 20.

Each arm 10, 20, 30 comprises a first end portion 10 a, 20 a, 30 a and asecond end portion 10 c, 20 c, 30 c and an intermediate portion 10 b, 20b, 30 b.

The arms 10, 20, 30 are mounted through their first ends 10 a, 20 a, 30a to the supporting rails 2 a, 2 b in a spaced a part relationship, thusdefining a general plane of the holder, i.e. the plane of the drawingsheet.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, central arm 20 is fixedly mounted on therails 2 a, 2 b whereas both lateral arms 10, 30 are slidably mounted onrails 2 a, 2 b.

For example, as shown on FIG. 1, each of the lateral arms 10, 30 can bebiased by a compression spring 4 mounted on rail 2 b.

Thus, springs 4 urge lateral arms 10, 30 towards central arm 20 to afinal position for firmly maintaining an inserted lens 3.

Of course, lateral arms 10, 30 may simply be sliding on rails 2 a, 2 band blocking means such as blocking screws may be provided to maintainthe lateral arms at the desired position.

Second end portions 20 c of central arm 20 comprises two opposite lensaccommodating recesses 21, 22 and each lateral arm second end portion 10c, 30 c comprises one lens accommodating recess 11, 31, each of therecesses 11, 31 of the second end portions 10 c, 30 c of lateral arms10, 30 facing one corresponding recess 21, 22 of the central arm 20.

As seen on FIG. 1, each of the lens accommodating recesses comprises aflat bottom wall 11 a, 21 a, 22 a, 31 a and two inclined flat sidewalls11 b, 11 c, 21 b, 21 c, 22 b, 22 c, 31 b, 31 c, respectively.

Preferably, the inclined flat sidewalls form with the flat bottom wallan angle of 120° or more, preferably 125°.

As shown on FIG. 2, the second end portion 10 c of lateral arm 10 isthinner than the intermediate and first end portion 10 b, 10 a.Typically, the thickness of second end portion 10 c in the directionperpendicular to the general plane of the holder is about 4 mm.Similarly, the second end portions 20 c, 30 c of central arm 20 andlateral arm 30 are thinner than their intermediate and first endportions, being typically of a thickness of 4 mm.

According to the invention, at least the second end portions 10 c, 20 c,30 c and preferably the entire arms 10, 20, 30 are made of a materialhaving a dielectric constant at 1 MHz of at least 3.0 and preferablyalso a specific heat higher than 1.2 kJ kg⁻¹K⁻¹.

A preferred material is a polyoxymethylene commercialized undertradename DELRIN®.

The second end portions of the arms can also be made of a metal orcoated with a metal such as aluminum. In that case, preferably, theother portions of the arms are made of an electrically insulatingmaterial, in particular a plastic material.

For placing a lens 3 in the holder 1, the user first moves, for example,lateral arm 30 away from central arm 20 by slidably translating arm 30on rails 2 a, 2 b against spring 4. He then places the lens 3 with itsoptical axis orthogonal to the holder general plane in the created spacebetween the facing recesses 22, 31 of central arm 20 and lateral arm 30.Once the lens 3 in the correct position, he liberates lateral arm 30which under the action of spring 4 is urged towards central arm 20, intocontact with the periphery of lens 3, thereby firmly maintaining lens 3in position. Depending on the shape of the recesses, the lens 3 isfirmly maintained by central arm 20 and lateral arm 30 through 2 or 4contact points between the lens periphery and the second end portions ofthe arms.

Lateral arm 10 functions in a similar way as lateral arm 30, thuspermitting accomodation of a second lens in the holder.

Of course, the holder 1 may solely comprise two arms. In that case, oneof the arm may be fixed and the other is movable or both arms can bemovable.

Referring to FIGS. 3 to 5, there is represented another embodiment of anoptical lens holder according to the invention.

The lens holder 1 comprises a supporting means such as an elongatedplate 2 to be held vertically and two spaced apart arms 10, 20projecting horizontally from one face of elongated plate 2. As shown inthe drawings, the arms are also formed of two elongated plates. Themutually facing surfaces of the arms 10, 20 are each provided with twospaced apart tabs 11, 12; 21, 22, projecting perpendicularly from thesurface of the arm.

The tabs on one of the arm surface are in register with the tabs of thefacing surface of the other arm.

The free ends of each tab 11, 12; 21, 22 are provided with a notch 13,14; 23, 24 preferably a notch having an angle of at least 90°.

As indicated earlier, the arms 10, 20 may be mounted on supporting means2 by one end portion thereof through means (not represented) allowingrelative slidable translation of the arms on the supporting means 2.

However, the arms 10, 20, the tabs 11, 12, 21, 23 and the supportingplate 2 may be a single molded piece, with either the arms or the tabsbeing elastically deformable.

Of course, as previously indicated, the tabs and also preferably theportion of the arms in the vicinity of the tabs shall be made of amaterial having the required dielectric constant and also preferably therequired specific heat.

When a user wants to place an optical lens in this holder, he firstmoves away from each other the arms 10, 20 either by slidablytranslating them away from each other or by elastically deforming themaway from each other as shown in FIG. 6. Then the user introduces thelens 3 in the accommodating space thus formed, with the lens opticalaxis perpendicular to the general plane of the lens holder, i.e. theplan of drawing sheet, and moves the arms towards each other or let themmove to their initial relative position due to elastic forces of thearms so that the lens 3 is maintained in the holder through four (4)contact points between the lens periphery and the holder.

When only the tabs are elastically deformable, the user needs only toforce lens 3 in position against the tabs which, due to their elasticitywill accomodate the lens and maintain it.

EXAMPLE 1

Polycarbonate lenses having circular edge (diameter 65 mm) weresubmitted to a corona discharge using a lens holder as shown in FIG. 1having arms made of DELRIN® according to the invention, and forcomparison made of TEFLON®.

Properties of the different materials are indicated in Table I below:TABLE 1 Polycarbonate Properties Teflon ® optical grade Delrin ®Dielectric constant at 2.1 2.9 3.7 1 MHz Dielectric strength 24 kV/mm 30kV/mm 19.7 kV/mm Dissipation Factor 0.0003-0.0007 0.01 0.005 SpecificHeat kJ/kg · K 1.4 1.2 1.5

In each case, the lenses were passed in front of the corona discharge ata speed of 3 mm/s, and then moved down 26 mm and passed again in frontof the corona discharge at the same speed.

The corona apparatus is a Multidyne unit from 3 DT. The corona heads arelocated at 17 mm from the holder.

The holder used is as described on FIGS. 1 and 2.

The thickness of the parts 10 c, 20 c and 30 c is 4 mm.

Burn marks are observed at the contact points of the lens held by theTEFLON® holder but no defects were observed on the lens held by theDELRIN® holder.

EXAMPLE 2

Polycarbonate lens whose edge has a rectangular shape (after being edgedby an edging machine) is placed in a lens holder according to theinvention as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and is submitted to a coronadischarge treatment.

The lens holder has arms made of DELRIN® with a 4 mm thickness of thelens accommodating portion, and an aluminum foil covering the lensaccommodating portion of each arm.

The lens is passed in front of the corona heads at a speed of 17 mm/s,then is lowered down to 26 mm. This treatment is repeated 4 times. Adelay of 5 s is observed between each passages (except when the lens islowered down).

No defects are observed.

1. An optical lens holder comprising a support and a first and a secondarm defining a lens holder general plane, first and second arms beingrelatively movable with regard to each other and each arm having spacedapart first and second end portions and an intermediate portion, thearms being mounted on the support through their first end portions andthe second end portions of each arm adapted to accommodate an opticallens during use, whereby an optical lens can be maintained within thefirst and second arms with its optical axis orthogonal to the generalplane of the lens holder through at least one contact point between thelens periphery and each of the first and second arms, wherein at leastthe second end portion of each arm comprises a material having adielectric constant at 1 MHz equal to or higher than the dielectricconstant of the optical lens material.
 2. The optical lens holder ofclaim 1, further defined as comprising one or two contact points betweenthe lens periphery and each of the first and second lens arms.
 3. Theoptical lens holder of claim 1, wherein the support is not electricallyconductive.
 4. The optical lens holder of claim 1, wherein the materialof the second end portion of each arm has a dielectric constant at 1 MHzof 3.0 or more.
 5. The optical lens holder of claim 1, wherein thematerial of the second end portion of each arm has a specific heat (kJkg⁻¹ K⁻¹) higher than the specific heat of the optical lens material. 6.The optical lens holder of claim 5, wherein the material of the secondend portion of each arm has a specific heat higher than 1.2 kJ kg⁻¹ K⁻¹.7. The optical lens holder of claim 1, wherein the material of thesecond end portion of each arm is polyacrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene(ABS), polyoxymethylene homo and copolymers (POMH and POMC) celluloseacetate (CA), cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), polyamides,polyetherimides (PEI), polymethylmethacrylates (PMMA) or polyaramides.8. The optical lens holder of claim 1, wherein the second end portion ofeach arm is either made of or covered with an electroconductivematerial.
 9. The optical lens holder of claim 8, wherein theelectroconductive material is a metal.
 10. The optical lens holder ofclaim 9, wherein the metal is aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass,or gold.
 11. The optical lens holder of claim 8, wherein theintermediate portion and first end portion of the arms are made of anelectrically insulating material.
 12. The optical lens holder of claim1, wherein the second end portion of each arm is thinner than theintermediate and first end portions in a direction orthogonal to thegeneral plane of the lens holder.
 13. The optical lens holder of claim12, wherein the thickness of the second end portion of each arm rangesfrom 2 mm to less than 13 mm.
 14. The optical lens holder of claim 13,wherein the thickness of the second end portion of each arm ranges from2 mm to 10 mm.
 15. The optical lens holder of claim 1, wherein each ofthe second end portion of each arm adapted to accommodate an opticallens during use lens comprises a recess having a bottom wall and twoinclined sidewalls.
 16. The optical lens holder of claim 15, wherein theinclined sidewalls form an angle of at least 120° with the bottom wall.17. The optical lens holder of claim 1, wherein the support comprises apair of parallel rails, first and second arms being movable bytranslation on said pair of rails, relatively to each other.
 18. Theoptical lens holder of claim 1, wherein the second end portion of thesecond arm is provided with an additional portion adapted to accommodatean optical lens during use, and further comprising a third arm oppositeto the first arm and lying in the lens holder general plane, relativelymovable with regard to the second arm and having spaced apart first andsecond end portions and an intermediate portion, the third arm beingmounted on the support through its first end portion and the second endportion of the third arm being provided with a portion adapted toaccommodate an optical lens during use, whereby an additional lens canbe maintained between the third arm and the second arm with its opticalaxis orthogonal to the general plane of the lens holder through at leastone contact point between its periphery and each of the second arm andthe third arm, wherein at least the second end portion of the third armcomprises a material having a dielectric strength of 1 MHz equal to orhigher than the dielectric constant of the optical lens material. 19.The optical lens holder of claim 18, wherein the support is notelectrically conductive.
 20. The optical lens holder of claim 18,wherein the material of the second end portion of each arm has adielectric constant at 1 MHz of 3.0 or more.
 21. The optical lens holderof claim 18, wherein the material of the second end portion of each armhas a specific heat (kJ kg⁻¹ K⁻¹) higher than the specific heat of theoptical lens material.
 22. The optical lens holder of claim 18, whereinthe material of the second end portion of each arm has a specific heathigher than 1.2 kJ kg⁻¹ K⁻¹.
 23. The optical lens holder of claim 18,wherein the material of the second end portion of each arm ispolyacrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polyoxymethylene homo andcopolymers (POMH and POMC) cellulose acetate (CA), cellulose acetatebutyrate (CAB), polyamides, polyetherimides (PEI),polymethylmethacrylates (PMMA) or polyaramides.
 24. The optical lensholder of claim 18, wherein the second end portion of each arm is eithermade of or covered with an electrically conductive material.
 25. Theoptical lens holder of claim 24, wherein the electroconductive materialis a metal.
 26. The optical lens holder of claim 25, wherein the metalis aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass, or gold.
 27. The opticallens holder of claim 24, wherein the intermediate portion and first endportion of the arms are made of an electrically insulating material. 28.The optical lens holder of claim 18, wherein the second end portion ofeach arm is thinner than the intermediate and first end portions in adirection orthogonal to the general plane of the lens holder.
 29. Theoptical lens holder of claim 28, wherein the thickness of the second endportion of each arm ranges from 2 mm to less than 13 mm.
 30. The opticallens holder of claim 29, wherein the thickness of the second end portionof each arm ranges from 2 mm to 10 mm.
 31. The optical lens holder ofclaim 18, wherein each of the second end portions of each arm adapted toaccommodate an optical lens during use comprises a recess having abottom wall and two inclined sidewalls.
 32. The optical lens holder ofclaim 31, wherein the inclined sidewalls form an angle of at least 120°with the bottom wall.
 33. The optical lens holder of claim 18, whereinthe second end portion of each arm adapted to accommodate an opticallens during use comprises a pair of parallel rails, the first and thirdarms being movable by translation on said pair of rails.
 34. The opticallens holder of claim 1, wherein the second end portion of each armadapted to accommodate an optical lens during use comprises twoidentical spaced apart tabs projecting perpendicularly from the firstand second arms.
 35. The optical lens holder of claim 34, wherein eachtab comprises a lens receiving notch at its free end.
 36. The opticallens holder of claim 34, wherein first and second arms are movable bytranslation on the support.
 37. The optical lens holder of claim 34,wherein first and second arms are elastically deformable.
 38. Theoptical lens holder of claim 34, wherein only the tabs are elasticallydeformable.
 39. The optical lens holder of claim 34, wherein thematerial of the second end portion of each arm has a dielectric constantat 1 MHz of 3.0 or more.
 40. The optical lens holder of claim 34,wherein the material of the second end portion of each arm has aspecific heat (kJ kg⁻¹ K⁻¹) higher than the specific heat of the opticallens material.
 41. The optical lens holder of claim 34, wherein thematerial of the second end portion of each arm has a specific heathigher than 1.2 kJ kg⁻¹ K⁻¹.
 42. The optical lens holder of claim 34,wherein the material of the second end portion of each arm ispolyacrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polyoxymethylene homo andcopolymers (POMH and POMC) cellulose acetate (CA), cellulose acetatebutyrate (CAB), polyamides, polyetherimides (PEI),polymethylmethacrylates (PMMA) or polyaramides.
 43. The optical lensholder of claim 34, wherein the second end portion of each arm is eithermade of or covered with an electrically conductive material.
 44. Theoptical lens holder of claim 43, wherein the electroconductive materialis a metal.
 45. The optical lens holder of claim 44, wherein the metalis aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass or gold.
 46. The opticallens holder of claim 43, wherein the intermediate portion and first endportion of the arms are made of an electrically insulating material. 47.The optical lens holder of claim 34, wherein the second end portion ofeach arm is thinner than the intermediate and first end portions in adirection orthogonal to the general plane of the lens holder.
 48. Theoptical lens holder of claim 47, wherein the thickness of the second endportion of each arm ranges from 2 mm to less than 13 mm.
 49. The opticallens holder of claim 48, wherein the thickness of the second end portionof each arm ranges from 2 mm to 10 mm.
 50. The optical lens holder ofclaim 35, wherein the notch has the shape of a V.
 51. The optical lensholder of claim 50, wherein the angle of the V notch is 90° or more.